{"id":411376,"date":"2026-07-24T23:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411376\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:32:07","slug":"suspect-in-fatal-2017-hit-and-run-is-extradited-from-israel-to-bay-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/411376\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect in fatal 2017 hit and run is extradited from Israel to Bay Area"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A former San Francisco man was extradited from Israel in mid-July to face charges in a fatal hit and run nine years ago in South San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maher Abedelal, 32, is in custody at the Maple Street Correctional Center in Redwood City, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Abedelal, who was brought back to the United States on July 14, is scheduled to appear in San Mateo County Superior Court for an arraignment on Aug. 17.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abedelal faces charges of felony hit and run and misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, San Mateo District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe confirmed to J. His bail is set at $2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shortly after midnight on Nov. 11, 2017, 44-year-old Teresa Gonzales of South San Francisco was struck by a driver near the 200 block of El Camino Real. The suspect drove away, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssfca.gov\/files\/assets\/public\/v\/1\/police\/press-releases\/2026\/17-6934-press-release.pdf\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">according to the South San Francisco Police Department<\/a>. Officers discovered Gonzales lying in the street and transported her to San Francisco General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Police identified Abedelal, a delivery driver at the time, as a suspect after he fled the country shortly after the incident. He remained at large until he was recently located in Israel, according to a police press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The FBI, U.S. Justice Department and San Mateo County District Attorney\u2019s Office worked with Israel\u2019s Ministry of Justice and national police to secure Abedelal\u2019s arrest, according to the press release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abedelal was previously convicted of felony robbery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf convicted of the 2017 hit-and-run, this charge will count as Abedelal\u2019s second strike, and his sentence may be doubled per California\u2019s Three Strikes Law,\u201d Wagstaffe said in an email to J.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel has had a reciprocal extradition agreement with the United States since the early 1960s. The two countries\u2019 extradition treaty was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/treaty-document\/109th-congress\/3\/document-text\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">updated in 2005<\/a> to broaden the category of qualifying offenses to any crime punishable by one year of imprisonment.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is the fifth known case of extradition from Israel to California in the last seven years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In July 2019, former Berkeley resident Yaniv Gohar was found in Israel two years after he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edca\/pr\/extradited-israeli-fugitive-pleads-guilty\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">fled charges<\/a> of conducting an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to commit money laundering. His brother, Orel Gohar, was still at large at the time of Yaniv\u2019s arrest and guilty plea but was then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edca\/pr\/second-extradited-israeli-fugitive-pleads-guilty-conducting-illegal-gambling-business\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">found and arrested in Israel<\/a> five months later, according to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of California.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In January 2020, Dr. David Morrow, a cosmetic surgeon from Coachella Valley in Southern California, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/fugitive-coachella-valley-doctor-extradited-israel-face-20-year-prison-term-imposed\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">extradited from Israel<\/a> to serve a 20-year federal prison sentence for insurance fraud. His wife, Linda, was also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/fugitive-returned-us-face-federal-charges-50-million-health-care-fraud-scam-run-out\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">returned from Israel months prior<\/a> and charged with participating in Morrow\u2019s scheme according to the Central District of California U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office. She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-cdca\/pr\/former-rancho-mirage-resident-sentenced-more-8-years-prison-44-million-fraud-illegally\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">pleaded guilty<\/a> to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and contempt of court and was sentenced to more than eight years in prison in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">J. covers our community better than any other source and provides news you can&#8217;t find elsewhere. Support local Jewish journalism and give to J. today. Your donation will help J. survive and thrive!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former San Francisco man was extradited from Israel in mid-July to face charges in a fatal hit&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[723,161,101,103,102,104,106,105,2653],"class_list":["post-411376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-crime","tag-hit-and-run","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-south-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}